EURO 2016 – Group A: Albania v Switzerland

Group A

Albania v Switzerland

Saturday June 11, 11:00pm

Match Overview

If France have, admittedly surprisingly, failed to pick up all three points on Saturday night Switzerland have a great chance of taking lead of Group A as they face an Albania side that we rank as the worst at these Finals.

Switzerland

Switzerland qualified comfortably behind England as they won seven of their 10 group games and while Albania are making their debut at a major championships the Swiss have been regulars at World and European Finals, missing just one since 2004.

These teams were in the same qualifying group for the last World Cup, when Switzerland won both home and away, and the Swiss have won their last nine competitive matches against teams ranked outside our top 50. Seven of those wins came to nil and five were by more than one goal, while if we include friendlies they’ve won their last 11 games against these teams with nine wins to nil.

Albania

The win to nil certainly looks a great option as Albania have a poor attack. They scored just seven times in seven completed qualifying matches, five of which came in two games against Armenia, and few of their players are used to playing at this level.

Since 2010 Albania have played eight competitive games against top-35 ranked sides and have gone W1-D2-L5 as they’ve only scored four times and three of those defeats were without scoring.

Following on from Albania’s weak attack it is not surprising that 10 of their last 14 competitive matches have had fewer than three goals while half have had fewer than two strikes.

Their most experienced players are all in defence and that is certainly the strength of this side while their manager, Gianni de Basi, has been in charge for several years developing a well organised and disciplined side.

Verdict

Since 1990, there have been 25 opening group matches at World and European Championships where one team has been 30-70 places higher in our rankings and those sides have a W17-D6-L2 record. 10 of those wins were to nil while 14 of the 25 matches had fewer than three goals.